Is Social Work Still Salient?

Henry Ruark - Please note in my comment "...most of the good ones in senior and disabled services, housing, tanf, OHP, food stamps etc." This seems to mirror your own experience does it not? Just saying our experiences seem to mesh well. I, too, found the best social workers to be in the senior and disabled services - a category I would include those you mentioned in. Ah well...

Friend Neal: Wisely, you speak from your own experience, surely in good faith but shaped by your own very special personal situation nevertheless. How could it possibly be otherwise ? From the same base, with extensive contact for more than six years, under very heavy strain of home care for a wife dying of colon problems and demanding extremely difficult tube-feeding and other needs as Altheimer's took over more and more completely, I can only say we would never have made it as a family without social worker and several other varieties of helpful care from every social agency we could find. Thus I have a different level and kind of experience to report, with some special circumstances prior to the illness also involved. Despite heavy stress and economic impacts, and with increasing physical aging difficultis of mine own, we found every single one of those we encounted as seeking first and foremost the best possible situation they could conjure for us --with little or no "career" or "agenda" interference with their professional responsibilities. Thus, for us, those three words featured in this careful account from author Coyne ring very true. I can only hope for others that the experience they will encounter reflects the deep professional concern and skill we were fortunate enough to find in our desperate need.

In my experience social workers can be very good or very bad with little grey area in between. The main factor I've seen to differentiate them is the good ones are seeking to help where the bad ones are pushing an agenda (their own or that of the agency) or are just on a personal power trip. Most of the bad ones seem to be in Gestapo CPS... most of the good ones in senior and disabled services, housing, tanf, OHP, food stamps etc. Some even try and act as counselors but personally I would never use one since unless you are working with (directly, not just as a general supervisor) a MD or PhD (psychiatrist or psychoanalyst) there is no doctor-patient privilege. Anyone can get your entire file by asking if the office is compliant or simply with a subpoena. As such you cannot comfortably open up since anything you say might come back to bite you. The most annoying thing is that I've never heard of a social worker counselor warning a would be client of this fact and in fact have had several argue with me until I produced the case law proving my point. Thhey seem more interested in the business they would lose than in the best interests of the people coming to see them. And I think that speaks volumes. Ah well...